Sewing machine



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i' atenteci May i2, 194? SEWING MACHINE Bernard T. Leveque, Wenham, Mass, assignor to, United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Borough of Flemington, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application April 19, 1939, Serial No. 268,708 r 42 Claims. (Cl. 112-36) The present invention relates to hook needle lockstitch sewing machines, and is herein disclosed as embodied in a shoe sole sewing machine of the so-called McKay type, similar in certain respects to the machine illustrated and described in the present inventors prior U. S. Letters Patent 1,885,927 dated November 1, 1932. The needle of machines of this type is straight and the work support consists of a rotatable horn arranged to extend within a shoe and provided at its tip with a needle threading device or whirl for laying the thread in the hook of the needle.

One object of the invention is to provide a lockstitch sewing machine of the McKay type which may be operated smoothly at high speeds while feeding the work, and manipulating the needle and locking threads so as to produce a satisfactory seam having the stitches spaced evenly and formed in a predetermined uniform manner. Other objects of the invention are to provide in a lockstitch sewing machine of the McKay type, constructions and arrangements of parts capable of high speed operation, as above indicated, which will be strong and durable and in which all of the principal stitch-forming devices can be brought to rest in the desired positions quickly and accurately without injurious shock or jar.

With the above and other objects in view, certain features of the present invention relate to the provision in a lockstitch McKay type shoe sewing machine of improved stitch-forming and working-feeding mechanisms which will contribute to the formation of each stitch in a more reliable manner than heretofore, and which will render feeding of the work free of the difficulties met in the use of prior McKay type machines, particularly when operated at high speeds.

In a lockstitch McKay type machine there is no room in the rotatable horn for an awl reciprocating bar or for its actuating mechanism so that when an awl is used in this type of machine it is necessary to mount the awl bar on the same side of the work as the needle. The additional space, however, required for such an awl .bar so limits and restricts the space available for the other stitch-forming instrumentalities, including the shuttle or loop taker and the loop spreader that it is necessary to reduce their size and movements to an undesirable extent, even to the point of causing the machine to sew irregularly or otherwise adversely affecting the quality of the work. To avoid this difiiculty, means are provided in the lockstitch machine embodying the awl back and forth together along the line of feed about an axis parallel to the work supporting surface of the horn. To this end the respective reciprocating bars are supported in carriers arranged to move together as a unit in the line of the seam. With the use of a needle carrier movable along the seam line, a movement of the carrier while the needle is raised from the work, according to afurther feature of the invention,

is employed to engage the needle loop with the loop spreader, thus reducing the movement required of the loop spreader while transferring each needle loop to the shuttle and rendering it possible to so position the needle that the open hook will face in a direction most advantageous for transferring the loop. Another advantage of this arrangement is that the needle may be moved in the direction of feed while the awl is feeding the work, thus keeping the awl and needle from accidental engagement during vertical movements of both. 7

A still further feature of the invention, according to which effective operation may best be obtained when a work piercing awl arranged in the manner just outlined is employed, but which is capable of use to advantage with McKay type shoe sewing machines having other forms of construction, comprises means acting separately from the rotary loop taking movements of the shuttle to pull off from the supply of locking thread a measured amount for each stitch. Ac-

cording to the illustrated form of this feature, the pull-off means consists of a finger connected with the awl reciprocating bar and arranged with relation to the locking thread supply case to deflect the locking thread between the supply and the work. In connection with this feature, the shuttle in which the thread case is mounted is located directly behind the needle and awl so that the connections between the locking thread pull-off finger and the awl reciprocating bar may be made as short as possible.

Other features of the invention include novel and improved driving and stopping mechanism, a novel and improved needle threading whirl and whirl driving mechanism, a novel and improved needle thread loop retainer, and other novel combinations and arrangements of parts which are advantageous in use both with McKay and other types of sewing machines, as will be readily understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

In the drawingsillustrating the invention in its preferred form, Figure 1 is a view in right present invention for moving both the needle and hand side elevation of a lockstitch McKay type shoe sewing machine embodying the several features of the present invention; Figure 2 is a front elevation of the head of the'machine illustrated in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a view in right hand side elevation, on a larger scale, of the head of the machine; Figure 4 is a view in front elevation on a somewhat larger scale of the head, the front cover having been removed; Figure 5 is a horizontal sectional detail view, taken along the line 5-5 of Figure 4; Figure 6 is a side sectional view of the front portion of the head on a further enlarged scale, taken'along the line 6-6 of Figure 4; Figure 7 is a, horizontal sectional detail view, taken along the line 7-1 of Figure 6; Figure 8 is a sectional plan view, taken along the line 8-8 of Figure 3; Figure 9. is a vertical sectional view on a somewhat enlarged scale of a portion of the head of the machine taken on line 9-9 of Figures 8 and 10; Figure 10 is a sectional view of the parts illustrated in Fig. 9, taken along the line I -!0 of Figure 9; Figure 11 is a view in front elevation on a still further enlarged scale of the rotary loop taker which is in the form of a shuttle,and its associated parts, as viewed along the line H-ll of Figure 6; Figure 12 is a sectional detail view illustrating the relation of the loop retainer to the lower part of the shuttle, as viewed from the line l2-l2 of Figure 11; Figure 13 is a sectional plan view, taken along the line l3-I3 of Figure 11; Figure 14 is a view of the same parts, taken in section along the line l4-l4 of Figure 11; Figure 15 is a detail View of the shuttle and bobbin arrangement, as viewed along the line I-I5 of Figure 11; Figure 16 is asectional plan view of a portion of the thread case, taken along the line Iii-l6 of Figure 11, illustrating the thread guiding and locking means associated with the shuttle thread measuring devices; Figure 17 is a detail view of the lock for holding the shuttle in operative position, as seen in Figure 14, but with the lock released; Figure 18 is a partially sectional view with the frame broken away, as viewed from the line I8-l8 of Figure 8, of the presser-foot actuating mechanism; Figure 19 is a view in section of the presser-foot clutch, taken along the line I 9-19 of Figure 18; Figure 20 is a sectional view of the presser-foot clutch taken along the line 20-20 of Figure 19; Figure 21 is a sectional view of the presser-foot clutch, taken along the line 2l-2l of Figure 19 Figure 22 is a detail view of a portion of the presser-foot unlocking and the loop retainer actuating mechanisms, as viewed from the front of the machine; Figure 23 is a view in left hand side elevation of the upper portion of the base of the machine in which the main driving and stopping controlling means is located; Figure 24 is a view in front elevation of the same portion of the base and also of the work supporting horn of the machine; Figure 25 is a view in right hand side elevation with the side cover removed, of the portion of the base containing the driving andstopping controlling means, as viewed along line 25-25 of Figure 24; Figure 26 is a detail view on an enlarged scale illustrating in section the needle thread tension of the machine; Figure 27 is a sectional plan view of a portion of the base, taken along the line 21-21 of Figure 25; Figure 28 is a front view of the same portion of the base, partly in section, taken along the line 28-28 of Figure 25, with the machine at rest; Figure 29 is a similar view with the machine in starting position, certain parts being broken away to show the underlying construction; Figure 30 is a view in side elevation of the control connections extending between the head of the machine and the base for causing disconnection of the actuating devices from their respective operating shafts, illustrating the disconnectible elements in disconnected positions; Figure 31 is a View of the same connections i1- lustrating the disconnectible elements in connecting positions; Figure 32 is a view in side elevation, and partly in section, of the rotary horn of the machine; Figure 33 is a sectional view of a part of the drive connections for the whirl in the horn, taken along the line 33-33 of Figure 32; Figure 34 is a sectional side view on an enlarged scale of the top of the horn showing the needle threading whirl, taken on the line 34-34 of Figure 35; Figure 35 is a plan view of the horn tip; and Figures 36 and 45 inclusive, are detail views illustrating the stitch forming and work feeding devices in successive operating positions assumed during a single stitch forming cycle of operation in the machine.

The sewing machine illustrated in the drawings is of the McKay type arranged with a straight hook needle, a rotatable shoe supporting horn and other stitch forming devices for sewing a locksmith seam. So far as the general manner of sewing is concerned, the machine is much the same as the machine illustrated in inventors prior patent previously referred to, in which each stitch is formed by inter-locking a loop of needle thread with a locking thread during one cycle of stitch-forming operations, and in which the stitch thus formed is set during a succeeding cycle of operations.

The stitch forming and work feeding devices of the machine include in addition to the straight hook-needle, indicated at 30, Figs. 2 and 4, a straight 'work penetrating and feeding awl 32 at the side of the work with the needle, a loop taker 0r shuttle 34, a loop spreader 36, a presser-foot 38, a two-armed take-up 40, 42, Figs. 1 and 24, a needle thread tension and lock 44, and a rotary needle looper or whirl 46, Figs. 1 and 34. The whirl 46 rotates in the usual way at the tip end of the horn, indicated at 48, the horn being rotatable in a forwardly extending portion 50 of the main base 52 of the machine, and having a substantially flat work supporting surface. Rising from the rearward portion of the base 52 is a hollow supporting column at the upper end of which is a sewing head frame or casing 54 overhanging the horn and having located therein most of the principal stitch forming devices.

In certain previous sewing machines, the Work is fed by an awl located at the same side of the work with the needle and arranged to penetrate substantially through the work and to move laterally therewith in the'direction of feed into line with the needle, which has no lateral movement in the line of feed. The reciprocating movements of the needle and awl in these machines are required to be so timed that the downward movement of the needle is delayed to keep it out of the way of the awluntil the awl reaches the uppermost portion of its stroke. The limitations enforced by this requirement restrict the reciprocating movements of the needle and awl to an undesirable extent, particularly when the machine is to be operated at high speeds.

In the present machine these objections are avoided by spacing the needle from the awl in the direction of the feed a distance of exactly a stitch length and then moving the needle and the awl laterally as a unit about an axis parallel to the work supporting surface of the horn, so 

